With only seconds to spare before a looming midnight deadline, Allentown Mayor Ray O’Connell vetoed the city’s amended 2019 budget Saturday night, thwarting a veto override by City Council and effectively making his own spending plan with a 27 percent tax increase into law.

O’Connell, the city’s mayor for less than a year, sat face-to-face with City Council as he delivered the veto at 11:59 p.m., with just 30 seconds to spare. A written message that he delivered with the veto argued that the 1.5-mill tax increase included in his proposed budget was a necessary move for a city that has staved off such increases for 13 years.

Council hoped to reduce that increase by a quarter mill, to about a 22 percent hike. For someone who owns a $150,000 home with $20,000 in land value, the savings would have been around $42 annually.

Saturday’s peculiar late night legislative session — convened at 11:30 p.m. — arose from that dispute. Council amended O’Connell’s spending plan Monday to reduce the tax increase by cutting overtime and staffing, and tapping reserves. That left the mayor five days to make a decision on the amended plan — five days that expired as the clock struck midnight Saturday.

O’Connell could have vetoed the plan earlier in the week, but a veto override was likely. Five members of council voted to amend the mayor’s budget, and five votes are needed to override a mayoral veto.

Instead, the mayor’s late-night veto prevented City Council from taking action. The board did not have time Saturday night to open the floor to discussion and take public comment, both requirements before a vote can be taken by the city’s legislative body.

Council spent the final 30 seconds before midnight arguing among members. Councilman Julio Guridy made a motion to override, but discussion devolved into a disagreement about the proper procedure for the vote.

O’Connell’s budget, which is the only one that will become law before he runs for re-election next year, relies on the property tax increase to fill a $6 million deficit. City financial advisers warned earlier this year that Allentown needed to address ongoing deficits, which have been a problem for years, or risk the city’s bond rating dropping further. Ratings agency Standard & Poor’s downgraded the city in October from A+ to A.

But the city’s options beyond a tax increase are limited. Allentown has next to no capacity for long-term borrowing and cash reserves have been severely depleted by years of budgets that relied on reserve money to balance.

Additional unforeseen expenses further drained the fund in 2018, including a computer virus attack, high legal expenses and the correction of a more-than-decade-old budgeting error.

The city will enter 2019 with less than $7 million in reserves, $5.2 million of which is tied up in a lockbox that must be repaid by the end of the year if tapped.

Still, property tax increases are unpalatable for Allentown residents. While on the campaign trail, former Mayor Ed Pawlowski, who was jailed this year after his conviction on federal corruption charges, often touted his record of avoiding property tax hikes, and residents grew accustomed to the rate remaining steady over the last decade.

Allentown resident Ed White, clad in a tuxedo and plaid jacket for the late night meeting, spoke to council and the mayor just ahead of the veto urging the group to think about what is most financially responsible for all city residents. While some can afford the tax increase, there are certainly those who can’t, he said.

Guridy, also speaking before the veto, called the meeting “one of the most ridiculous” he’s ever attended.

“We could have taken care of this in the last five days.” he said. “We could have come to an agreement that would have been satisfactory to the mayor, council and the citizens.”

O’Connell confirmed Saturday that he will run for re-election next year, but said he wasn’t concerned about the political ramifications of the budget veto.

“I feel in my heart and in my head that what I did was financially responsible for the city of Allentown and its residents,” he said. “If this comes back to bite me and I don’t get re-elected, so be it. I will fight for the residents of Allentown.”

The final 2019 budget calls for a 3 percent wage increase for all nonunion city employees and a one-year deferment on a loan payment to the city’s solid waste fund. The plan also includes two new firefighters and four new staffers for the IT department.

Council’s amended plan would have cut $375,314 dedicated to four new positions in the IT department and cut $380,871 from overtime spending — putting that cash into the city’s cash reserve. About $200,000 more would have been needed from the city’s existing reserves to balance the budget.